Away Sweet Away

John Maine turned in his third straight subpar start and Aaron Sele almost threw away the game, but the Mets defeated the lowly Pirates last night. Moises Alou homered and drove in three, David Wright (MVP?!) knocked in a pair and Carlos Beltran collected two RBIs and, perhaps more importantly, made a fantastic running catch in the ninth.

Hard to get too excited about beating the Pirates, but I'm not complaining.

But we can be sure that as long as he has, even by the slimmest margin, the stamina and strength required to pitch in the majors, he'll be able to get hitters out. And the very fact that he's taken a mound twice now, and is preparing to do so a third time this weekend, makes me confident that he will prove to have that stamina and strength. Will that be enough? I think so. Pedro Martinez is no ordinary man, and every time he's ever been doubted he's shoved it right in everyone's face. It won't be long before he does it again.

Wright? Heresy here, but I've never completely climbed aboard the Wrightwagon with ten toes. It's bugged me ever so slightly all along how he was the anointed one after no more than a half-season, how I showed up on Opening Day 2005 and there were crisp white Wright shirts everywhere. It's probably my Reyes bias showing and my dismay that some idiot higher-up in the Mets' front office actually referred to our David as "our Jeter". Ugh. I'm deep enough to admit that I'm shallow enough to look past that when he's blazing with the bat. Sometimes I'm that easy. I never said I was as deep as Atlantic Monthly. If Wright hits (and he has a good bit lately), I'm as big a sucker for this guy as anybody.

Mark Hale reports that Endy Chavez will likely play in his first rehab game tonight.

COO Jeff Wilpon, who flew in from the owners' meetings in Toronto to watch Wednesday night's game, even suggested that Martinez could make a rehab start for Class A Brooklyn. It was difficult to tell if he was joking or not, but Moises Alou played one game for the Cyclones before he was activated from the DL on July 27.

Orlando Hernandez offered an unsolicited recommendation to GM Omar Minaya to trade for Jose Contreras. "I told (Minaya) to go get him," El Duque told The Journal News. "He can help me. He can help us." Contreras is 6-14 with a 6.24 ERA with the White Sox.